Legacies links for August 22, 2022: guns and other topics

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Black Panther Party demonstration, c. 1967. The modern era of gun control legislation is sometimes traced to California Gov. Ronald Reagan’s reaction against the Panthers bearing arms. source: CIR Online / CC BY 2.0

First, the latest research on guns and the legacy of slavery:

  • “Historical rates of enslavement predict modern rates of American gun ownership,” Phys.org (August 19, 2022): LINK. “The higher percentage of enslaved people that a U.S. county counted among its residents in 1860, the more guns its residents have in the present, according to a new analysis by researchers exploring why Americans’ feelings about guns differ so much from people around the globe.” Read the original study at https://doi.org/10.1093/pnasnexus/pgac117.
  • “Anti-Black racism linked to lower support for some gun rights,” American Psychological Association (August 19, 2022): LINK. “Racially resentful white Americans are less likely to support some gun rights if they believe Black people are exercising those rights more than white people, according to research published by the American Psychological Association.” Read the original study at https://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/releases/xge-xge0001275.pdf.

Other links:

  • August 23 has been designated by UNESCO as the International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition.
  • Billy Anania, “Review: Songs of Slavery and Emancipation,” Pitchfork (August 18, 2022): LINK. “Faithfully recreating the music of slave organizers, freedom fighters, and abolitionists, a recent compilation sheds light on the politics of collective liberation at the root of 19th-century American folk and bluegrass.”
  • Steven Mintz, “What Every College Graduate Should Know About Slavery,” Inside Higher Ed (August 15, 2022): LINK.
  • Emanuella Grinberg, “A new historical marker honors a Morehouse student who was lynched [in 1930],” Canopy Atlanta (August 12, 2022): LINK.
  • Char Adams and Claretta Bellamy, “From rentals to bathrooms: Airbnb listings aren’t the first offensive effort to commercialize slave cabins,” NBC News (August 10, 2022): LINK. “The Airbnb listing was simple: a charming Mississippi cottage with old-fashioned decor and access to Wi-Fi and streaming platforms … [and] once home to those enslaved.”